By Fatima Saka
Abuja, Nigeria — Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, on Friday announced that the Federal Government is tightening coordination in the health sector to ensure stronger collaboration with development partners and accelerate reforms aimed at improving healthcare delivery nationwide.
The minister disclosed this through the ministry’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle following deliberations at the 2026 Health Development Partners Retreat, where government officials and international partners reviewed progress on the country’s health sector reform agenda.
According to Pate, the government is prioritising improved transparency, alignment of donor investments with national priorities, and stronger collaboration between federal, state and local authorities to enhance health outcomes across Nigeria.
He stressed that better coordination among stakeholders is essential to implementing reforms under the Health Sector Compact, which seeks to harmonise investments and programmes across the health system.
Discussions at the retreat focused on practical steps to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems, improve communication among partners and reduce fragmentation in programme implementation.
Participants emphasised the importance of increasing the visibility of development partners’ investment portfolios to support accountability and ensure that interventions are aligned with Nigeria’s health priorities.
Stakeholders also highlighted the need to strengthen existing coordination mechanisms under the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) framework. Technical Working Groups and other SWAp governance platforms were identified as critical tools for fostering cross-agency collaboration and ensuring that development partners actively support sector-wide reforms.
Development partners at the meeting reaffirmed their commitment to improving coordination among themselves through platforms such as the Development Partners Group and the SWAp Technical Working Groups. This includes aligning investments, avoiding duplication of programmes and ensuring new initiatives comply with the principles guiding Nigeria’s health sector compact.
The retreat also reviewed the impact of evolving fiscal and financing policies across federal, state and local governments on the implementation of key health programmes.
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Participants stressed the need for stronger federal–state alignment to sustain ongoing reforms and ensure effective operationalisation of priority initiatives across the health sector.
Among the proposals discussed were strengthening monitoring systems through digital dashboards such as the Results Monitoring, Evaluation and Tracking (RMET) platform, establishing a Technical Assistance Pooled Fund to support government-led technical priorities, and expanding health insurance coverage while leveraging private sector participation in service delivery.
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